His One and Only
by Miss Phyllis Baxter
Summary: After taking King's Landing, Selyse passes and Stannis needs a new queen.


**His One and Only**

**By: **shadowofdragonstone

**Ship:** Stannis x Melisandre

**Word Count:** 1225

**Summary: **After taking King's Landing, Selyse passes and Stannis needs a new queen.

**Warning: **_'MAJOR' CHARACTER DEATH (Sorry Selyse). Mix of show and book canon, but only because I do think that at some point in the books (even though we didn't see it) Mel promised to never abandon Stannis. _

After the sacking of King's Landing, Melisandre began to enjoy sleeping much more than she ever had before. Her whole life she had been plagued with nightmares, and somehow with Stannis on the Iron Throne, the nightmares ceased. Maybe it was due to Stannis sleeping shamelessly next to her every night with his arms around her. Selyse had fallen seriously ill in the final month of the war and had died before Stannis had taken King's Landing. Even though Melisandre knew that Stannis and Selyse hadn't loved each other very much, she noticed that he did miss her, in his own quiet, teeth grinding way. Melisandre missed her too, angry that Selyse had told her to not bring her back afterwards. _Save your power for Stannis in case something happens, _Selyse had told her. Thankfully nothing had happened, but every time she had fallen asleep since Selyse's passing before King's Landing was Stannis', she would have horrific nightmares that usually involved Stannis dying in her arms, or worse, dying alone without her there to hold him. She couldn't abandon him, and if he died without her holding him, she'd have abandoned him. And if something happened and she died first, she'd have abandoned him. She had sworn to never abandon her king, and she never would. When she had stayed at the Wall instead of going south with Stannis, she felt like she was abandoning him, and he had done everything he could in order to stop her from feeling that way. _If you look for me in the flames, and you think of me, then you have not abandoned me, _he had told her. Seeing him in the flames at that time had been more difficult, since R'hllor kept showing her Jon Snow instead of Stannis, but her king was always on her mind.

As she prepared for bed that night, Stannis came into her bedchamber as he always did, but this time he just sat at her chair by the fire, rather than removing his cloak and outer clothing down to his shirt and britches like he normally did. "Is something wrong my king?" she asked, approaching him while removing the braid from her hair. "If there is, please tell me."

"Nothing's the matter," he replied, pulling her down into his lap gently and running his fingers through her hair. His consistently unreadable face seemed to tell Melisandre that something was wrong. More often than not, she could tell when something was wrong as well as tell the alternative, but tonight she had been wrong. She hated being wrong, as it made her doubt her ability to read the man she loved, her king. It pained her to think that until she had told him of her feelings, he had gone his whole life feeling unloved, but when people saw him they would only see his cold exterior, not the man that Melisandre knew him to be. Ser Davos was one of the few who almost saw the man that she saw when she looked at him. They both knew he was a great man and they both loved him dearly, in their own very different ways. But she knew that she loved him more.

"Alright, then why the change of routine?" she asked, expressing what had made her believe there had been something amiss.

"Because I wanted to ask you something," he replied, attempting a smile that made her heart melt. He was always so good to her, and she just wanted to hold onto him all the time. His face only held the almost smile for a moment before going back to it's regular emotionless look.

"Yes?" she asked, wondering what he would possibly need her to answer. She may have been one of his adviser's on his council, but usually he'd go to Ser Davos about things like this, knowing that Melisandre would give him the answer that would likely end in flames and people lying dead in the streets.

"I was wondering if, since Selyse is gone now, and since we're sharing a bed every night now, I was wondering if you'd do me the honour of becoming my queen? I mean, the men already say that you were my true queen all along. Some of them call you Queen Melisandre in private, they see you as their queen and I wish to make you my queen, officially." Melisandre's eyes widened as her jaw dropped. Stannis put his hand on her chin, lifting her jaw to hold her mouth closed. "My lady, you have a very attractive mouth and if you keep it open, I'm likely to kiss it." Melisandre could feel her cheeks going red as she put her hand on the king's forehead to check for a temperature, and after a moment she realized that one of them was extremely warm. Deciding that it was indeed herself, her hand dropped, and Stannis caught it in his own hand.

"My king, you're obviously ill. Take off your cloak and everything and get into bed, I'll take care of you. There's no sense in waking Maester Pylos to tend to you when I can do this just as easily. I can't be your queen, I'm more lowborn than Davos is, Shireen has no great love for me, and not to mention, I am a priestess."

"You promised me sons," he whispered hoarsely. "I've loved you. Your birth means nothing to me, you're more cut out to be a queen than my wife ever was. I married her because I had no other choice, our marriage was cursed by my own stupid brother and her bloody cousin. And Shireen will come around in time. Spend a little bit of time with her; reading, talking, anything that shows her how much you really do love her and appreciate her. Her father is a cold man, and her mother never showed a great deal of love towards her. Give her time and I'm sure she'll warm up to you. And surely R'hllor can not expect you to remain completely in his service forever. People fall in love, you told me that R'hllor is love. Well, my love for you, the love I know you bear me, I know that R'hllor would want us to be happy. You were meant to be my queen."

Melisandre's eyes filled with tears. He was very convincing and she wanted to say yes very much, to accept his offer, to be his queen, but something in her just couldn't get the words out. After a small while, Stannis' head fell briefly and he stood to leave her. "No, wait my king," she whispered, reaching out for him. For the first time in so long, she actually felt scared. Scared that he would leave right now and change his mind and find another queen. "I accept. There is nothing I want more in this world than

you. I love you with all my heart. Please don't go."

Stannis turned around and looked at her. "I won't go. Not unless you want me too, my queen," he said, sitting back down and pulling her into his arms. "You're mine and I'm yours, and nothing will change that for as long as we are alive."

"Thank you Stannis," she said, taking his hand in her's and playing with his fingers.


End file.
